Weekly News Round-up: July 5, 2016
Here are some highlights from the past week’s news and upcoming events on family tax credit issues. Remember – you also can track news coverage throughout the week by visiting our website, where you can filter news by a specific credit or state.
- The Democratic Party introduced its 2016 party platform and announced support for expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for childless workers, lowering the eligibility age from 25 to 21 and strengthening the Child Tax Credit (CTC) by indexing it to inflation. The platform will be voted on by delegates at the convention July 25-28 and will serve as a legislative guide for Democratic lawmakers across the country (DNC, Washington Post).
- Foon Rhee of the Sacramento Bee urged California lawmakers to increase the state’s EITC to help reduce growing income inequality across the state (Sacramento Bee).
- Days before the territory was set to default on its loans, Congress passed a bill to help Puerto Rico out of its financial crisis. Unlike in earlier drafts, the passed legislation does not include a measure to expand the EITC to Puerto Ricans (Bloomberg View).
- The National Bureau of Economic Research released a working paper that found increasing the minimum wage and the EITC improved birthweights and overall health of children born to families collecting the credit (Washington Post).
- The General Accounting Office (GAO) encouraged the IRS to expand its use of data and create a plan to reduce improper payments of refundable credits like the EITC (Accounting Today).